posted at 3:21 pm on April 7, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Last week, former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that the employer mandate in ObamaCare would not survive, and he certainly has reason to think so. The White House keeps unilaterally changing the enforcement date and the parameters of the mandate, clearly hoping to escape political accountability for it when it finally takes effect. Yesterday, Candy Crowley asked Nancy Pelosi if Gibbs was right, but the House Minority Leader dismissed Gibbs’ prediction as just Gibbs speaking on behalf of his corporate clients:

“I don’t know who his clients are or what his perspective is,” Pelosi told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we are celebrating the fact that we have over seven million who have signed up.” …

Asked again about Gibbs on Sunday, Pelosi expressed exasperation that his comments would be given such prominence. “I don’t know why we’re focusing on that,” she told CNN. “One person says one thing. Seven million people signed up.”

Yikes. I imagine that Gibbs won’t be too thrilled to have Pelosi imply that he’s a corporate shill. However, Pelosi seems a lot more effusive about the employer mandate than the Obama administration, perhaps because Gibbs and the White House sees what’s coming when it really hits. HHS’ own data shows that as many as 93 million may lose their current insurance plans, and given what compliance costs will be for larger employers, a significant percentage of those may find themselves on the individual market as employers choose to pay fines rather than absorb the skyrocketing costs.

Pelosi is right about one thing, though, which is that all these pieces were designed to fit together. That includes the employer mandate. Without that penalty, employers would already be jettisoning health-insurance coverage and providing a lump-sum compensation boost instead. That would completely disrupt the insurance markets, force even higher premium increases, and exponentially increase the anger from the public over ObamaCare. The Obama administration and Democrats need the employer mandate in place in order to survive the next couple of election cycles. Don’t expect Democrats on Capitol Hill to let employers out of that cage, especially while the mandate stays in place on individuals. Otherwise, they will lose one of their biggest levers of power in this new command economy.

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Well if the Employer Mandate is canceled or delayed until the next ice age, the whole thing comes crashing down. Without that money they are counting on from fines the Obamacare train leaves the tracks pretty quick. They can prop it up for a year or so, but beyond that the cost to everyone else in the pool starts to skyrocket. It will be pretty hard to hide that going into the 2016 elections.

Well if the Employer Mandate is canceled or delayed until the next ice age, the whole thing comes crashing down. Without that money they are counting on from fines the Obamacare train leaves the tracks pretty quick. They can prop it up for a year or so, but beyond that the cost to everyone else in the pool starts to skyrocket. It will be pretty hard to hide that going into the 2016 elections.

Johnnyreb on April 7, 2014 at 3:29 PM

I’m sorry, but that just isn’t the case. They will prop it up as long as they have to prop it up. They don’t care about the cost. They already have an insurance bailout warming up on deck. And the GOPe is right in lockstep with the Dims on blowing the debt “ceiling” into oblivion.

The Dims will continue to deny anyone at all is losing their coverage or being hurt by ObamaGlitch because the State-Run media will let them.

And the GOPe will allow them to get away with it all by fully buying into the “fix” mantra after the mid-terms.

They will team up with the Dims to ensure ObamaGlitch is kept, because that screws over Conservatives. As we all know, the GOPe hates Conservatives MUCH more than DimocRats.

Go on a campaign tour in Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Michigan, Iowa, West Virginia, and Virginia with your Senator friends and tell everybody how wonderful Obamacare will be with the employer mandate.

Just stop funding it and channel the money to support medicare type quality of service and care availability. Just like it is now but without paying the government goons to enforce it, build databases, or convene death panels.

Despite the Obama administration’s claim that it has exceeded its March 31 goal of signing up seven million Americans through new health insurance exchanges, overall unfavorables for the health care law are up from 54% two weeks ago. Most voters have had an unfavorable opinion of the law in regular surveys since the beginning of last year. But the latest finding matches the all-time high first reached in mid-November.